The inventions described and claimed herein relate generally to smoking food on outdoor cooking devices. In particular, the inventions relate to add-on smoker devices for gas barbecue grills, although the inventions are not limited as such.
Smoking foods usually involves slowly cooking large cuts of meat in the presence of a heat source or fire, which usually takes twelve to fourteen hours. The smoking process imparts a natural smoke flavor to the food. Charcoal briquettes can be used to smoke foods, but many consumers prefer to use aromatic wood chips such as hickory, mesquite, maple or apple. For quite some time, the options for obtaining wood smoked foods were limited. A consumer could either purchase commercially smoked foods or could purchase a smoker, which is a specialized outdoor cooker especially designed for smoking foods. Smokers were not especially popular, likely because of the time required to use a smoker. Additionally, most consumers already possess a barbecue grill and may be unwilling to spend money on a second outdoor cooking device.
Recent developments in the art of barbecue grills, however, allow owners of barbecue grills to enhance the flavor of cooked foods with smoke. Manufacturers have developed smoke generating devices that are designed to be used as an accessory for a barbecue grill. In the case of a gas grill, because of the flexibility in regulating the temperature of a barbecue grill, the length of time needed to cook foods while still imparting a smoke flavor could be reduced significantly, to about one hour. Most devices comprise a box or container for holding wood chips which is inserted into the cooking chamber of the grill. In some cases, the smoke generating device is provided with auxiliary heating means for heating the wood chips to the kindling temperature. In other cases, the smoke generating device simply utilizes the pre-existing heat source of the barbecue grill. In the latter case, the smoke generating device is placed in an upper portion of the cooking chamber, either on top of the cooking grate or on top of sear bars. For examples of such devices, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,167,183, 6,102,028, and 6,257,130, which are assigned to the Assignee of the present invention and are incorporated herein by reference.
While the smoke generating devices of the prior art provide adequate smoke for smoking of foods, the prior art does have its drawbacks. For instance, the prior art devices are large and are generally designed to be placed on top of the cooking grate or on top of sear bars. In the former case, the smoke generating device reduces the area of available cooking surface. In the latter case, the smoke generating device is disposed between the heat source and the cooking surface, which reduces the area of the cooking surface that can be used for direct cooking of foods; i.e. food that is placed on the cooking surface above the smoker will be indirectly cooked. Reducing the available area for cooking foods can be especially troublesome in smaller portable grills, such as the Weber® Q™ compact barbecue grill, which can be viewed at www.weber.com. Accordingly, there is a need for a smoke generating device that does not reduce the cooking surface area or the cooking surface area that can be used for direct cooking of foods.
Another drawback is that many of the prior art smoke generating devices are designed to be placed on top of sear bars for a gas barbecue grill and, unfortunately, many gas barbecue grills do not have sear bars. Generally, this is an issue with the smaller compact barbecue grills. Consequently, there is a need for a smoke generating device which can be adapted for use with a grill lacking sear bars.
A further drawback of the prior art smoke generating devices is that they are generally disposed in a location where they will not receive fresh air, which can reduce the effectiveness of the smoke generating device. Fresh air generally enters a barbecue grill from the bottom. The fresh air must pass by the heat source, whether it be charcoal, propane, or other fuel, before it reaches the smoke generating device. Combustion of fuel utilizes the oxygen in the fresh air which has the effect of starving the smoke generating device of fresh air. As a result, there is a need for a smoke generating device that is adapted to receive fresh air.
Even further, it has been found that it is difficult to control the temperature of prior art smoke generating devices. Excessive temperatures can lead to ignition of wood particles, an excessive consumption rate of wood chips, and/or uneven consumption of wood particles. To prevent ignition, it is often necessary to reduce the temperature of the grill. Consequently, it takes longer to cook the food. Therefore, there is a need for a smoke generating device that is adapted to prevent ignition of wood particles and thus allow flexibility in selection of cooking chamber temperature.